The week leading up to the bioblitz and BBQ was a nail-biting will-they-won’t-they time. The weather forecast for Sunday was changing every day from rain to shine and back to rain again and we knew that cancellation was possible. On Thursday the forecast was looking good and the decision was made to go ahead. By Sunday the forecast was back to rain so I rammed my backpack with waterproofs – but thankfully, in the end, not a drop fell on us at Mount Batten beach and the Mount Batten Watersports & Activities Centre and we enjoyed another successful morning’s rock pooling.
On this occasion we were privileged to be joined by two marine biologists from the Plymouth Sound National Marine Park and also a contingent from the Falmouth group so, as well as the usual rivalry between families and adult citizen scientists as to who could find the most species, there was an additional competitive element between the Plymouth and Falmouth groups. Altogether there were a whopping 41 of us and the tide was exceptionally low so we had high expectations for the day.
At the beach
Instead of our usual species surveys, this was a bioblitz which meant that we went all out to find, log and photograph as many species as we could in 90 minutes. In total we found an amazing 77 species – the family group logged 52 and the adult citizen scientists 58. This is really useful data that will be uploaded to the database at the Marine Biological Association for use in scientific research.
The most common species found by both groups was crustaceans, a group which includes barnacles, crabs and shrimps. Partly because the tide was so low, crabs were everywhere and we even found two edible crabs that were big enough for fishers to be interested in. The next biggest group was molluscs, including limpets and periwinkles. Unfortunately our finds included a slipper limpet and some Pacific oysters, both invasive species that arrived from America in the late 1800’s. We also found plenty of starfish, spectacular anemones, weird sea squirts, sea urchins, fish including pipefish which are related to seahorses, and – my least favourite – worms (yuk!). Plus a lot of seaweeds and some other, perhaps less spectacular species!
See our shore
As this was a special bioblitz and BBQ day to celebrate our achievements over the summer, we didn’t have our mobile rock pool with us – instead we feasted on some wonderful BBQ food which Buffets R Us kindly agreed to provide despite being, for them, a relatively small event.
All in all it was a fantastic day – as ever, thanks go too to Fotonow and Ryan for supporting us on the day and to all you wonderful people who turned out to join in.
If you’re interested in joining us for the next Blue Recovery Beach Day and live in the PL1 postcode area, you can sign up for free tickets here. We will be venturing out to Mount Edgcumbe, exploring a new shore of the Plymouth Sound National Marine Park, on Saturday 8th October. There is no charge – we will be taking the Cremyll Ferry across to Mount Edgcumbe with complimentary coffee and cake from the Farrier’s Cafe before we set off rock pooling. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch via bluerecovery@therockpoolproject.co.uk.
